On Wings of Silence is the story of seventeen-year-old Diana Green, who travels from Texas to Mexico City searching for adventure, freedom, and romance. She finds all three.

Then Diana’s first love Guillermo vanishes during the revolutionary chaos prior to the ’68 Olympics. Heartbroken, she searches for the truth about his disappearance. As police track, threaten, and abuse those who ask questions, she refuses to be silenced and risks becoming one of the missing.

Based on real events, On Wings of Silence uses historical details to bring to life the horror of the Tlatelolco Massacre, presented through the eyes of a young woman readers will care about and admire.

“This incredible story…is told in a masterful way that engages the reader with its protagonist and the other characters from the start. They are authentic. We know people like them and we care what happens to them. In Fox’s clear voice, mystery, romance and suspense build steadily to the end. Pitched toward young adult readers, this is a good read for any age.” — Dianne Logan

Some stories take fifty years to surface. On Wings of Silence is one of them.

The first readers to recognize the significance of this topic were Anne McCrady and 2008 Texas Poet Laureate Larry D. Thomas, who selected my poem “Chapultepec Park” for the 2008 Christina Sergeyevna Award at the Austin International Poetry Festival. When critique partner Joy Preble said she believed there was a novel hidden within that poem, I began to search for answers to lingering questions about the chaos prior to the 1968 Olympics. Dr. Cliff Hudder, my earliest Beta reader, directed me to Elena Poniatowska’s Massacre in Mexico, and Alicia Salazar, whose uncle survived the bloodbath, contributed as a sensitivity reader.

Other beta readers of the full manuscript included Dr. Molly McBride, Dianne Logan, Juan Paloma, and Kim O’Brien. Their insights, as well as critiques by Bob Lamb and Suzanne Bazemore, along with inspirations from Charles Trevino’s SCBWI “Critique Critters” at Lone Star College, improved my storytelling. Fellow author Kathryn Lane helped with the wording of the Spanish version of the Corrido. I am especially grateful to my mentor and friend Dave Parsons, 2011 Texas Poet Laureate, who helped me develop my poetic voice.

For a quarter century, the Tlatelolco tragedy remained buried. With increasing access to Internet data, I eventually confirmed my worst fears; Communist instigators encouraged the student protests and the United States sent weapons and ammunition to Mexico to quell any conflict.

When former Mexican President Luis Echeverria spoke up about the young victims of the massacre, he said, “These kids were not provocateurs. The majority were the sons and daughter of workers, farmers and unemployed people.” According to him, then President Diaz Ordaz ordered snipers to shoot the students. How tragic and ironic that Mexican leaders used U.S. weapons to kill students protesting for a more democratic government while agents from the Soviet Union encouraged the demonstrations.

Triggered by this knowledge and my memories of running across advancing troop lines on the Avenida de la Reforma in Mexico City, I created the fictional On Wings of Silence: Mexico, 1968 with details supported by primary historical sources–testimonies from Massacre in Mexico, photos, letters, and newspapers, some with my byline.

Diana’s friends and acquaintances are fictional, with one exception. The student leader with the white van was real and a total mystery. I suspect he was a U.S. government agent whose purpose was to destabilize student leadership in the American university during turbulent times.

And Guillermo? Like my protagonist, I grieve for him, for all of the Guillermos and Guillerminas, and their families. Their truncated lives and unrealized dreams will forever haunt me. Diana and I hope our voices will rise on the wings of their silence.

Half a century ago, Olympic posters read, Todo es possible en la paz. I share that belief, but now have the maturity to know that peace is only possible when we put away our weapons and listen to one another.

Dede Fox is the 2017-2022 Poet Laureate of Montgomery, Texas. Since 2016, she has been the NEA/DOJ Artist-in-Residence at the Bryan Federal Prison Camp for Women, where she teaches creative writing. Through Houston’s Writers in the Schools, Dede also writes with hematology and oncology patients at Texas Children’s Hospital.

The Treasure in the Tiny Blue Tin, Dede’s first novel, was listed in the 2010 Best Jewish Books for Children and Teens. Her poetry books include Confessions of a Jewish Texan and Postcards Home. Dede’s poem “Chapultepec Park: September 25, 1968,” the catalyst for this novel, won the Christina Sergeyevna Award at the Austin International Poetry Festival.

The Rainwater Secret is a deeply moving, historical fiction novel about a woman who travels

to Africa to teach the leper children who were banished from their villages. Single and feeling there is nothing left for her in small-town England, Anna embarks on an adventure as a volunteer teacher with the Medical Missionaries of Mary. Life as Anna has known it is forever changed as she learns the culture that would banish its sick, disfigured, and crippled to the bush. Babies are left to die on roadsides, children are chased away to live by whatever means they can find. The aged are abandoned.

Anna’s daily life is an adventure as she travels from one village to another across a hostile land with few passable roads, rickety bridges threatening to fall apart and casting occupants on the jagged rocks far below, and weather that turns a calm river into a roiling death trap. In spite of the trials, Anna also manages to find love and family in this godforsaken land.

Follow this adventure through disease, weather, strife, death, and determination to turn a few acres of land into a loving home for the outcast lepers of Nigeria.

Well, back in 1950, my great aunt, Lily Murphy, heard that the Medical Missionaries of Mary were looking for a teacher to come to Africa to teach the leper children who were banned from their villages because of their disease. It wasn’t just my aunt, it was the wonderful sisters with the Medical Missionaries of Mary who were able to take a few acres of land and make it into a home for the leprosy patients. They gave each patient a plot of land to grow food, helped them build a thatched roof home, and gave them medical care and an education.

Also, I want to mention that a portion of the proceeds from the book goes to the Medical Missionaries of Mary who are still very humbly and quietly doing great work all over the world.

This adventure seemed like it would take a lot of courage.

Absolutely! It took them a month by boat to get to Nigeria and then at least another week by kitcar (which is a car built from spare parts) up to Ogoja where the first settlement was built. One of the nuns I interviewed told me that she was nineteen when she made the trip and thought she was going to be a nurse’s aide and then get trained to be a nurse in a hospital. She said when they drove up, there were no buildings, no housing – there was just a table under a tree where they were giving the leprosy patients inoculations.

How did you come across Lily’s story?

I was actually reading another book that was based in England, and it reminded me of Lily. I COULD NOT get her out of my head. I think there was a lot of divine intervention involved. I truly believe she was up in Heaven giving me a big nudge to get this story told. I just started researching, and the more I found, the more fascinated I was. I contacted the MMMs in Drogheda, Ireland, outside Dublin, and planned a trip to research more in their archives. Once I met the sisters there and spent time with them and in the archives, I knew I had to figure out how to get this done.

It took you seven years to write, what was it like juggling being a mom and a first time author?

Well the easiest answer is that it took me seven years, which should tell you something! It was a trick, but I LOVE this story. I was so determined to make sure that I got the story told, I worked on it every moment I could.

What was so inspiring about Lily’s journey in life that you wanted to share it?

Lily and all the MMMs basically gave up many, many years of theirs lives to go to a foreign land, not knowing what they were getting into, to help others. Many gave their lives there. Lily was interviewed in the Dallas Morning News a long time ago, and when they asked her about going on this adventure so far away and why, she just replied, “What’s the use of just working for oneself?” which pretty much says it all.

What does your book say about the strength and spirit of women?

I think mainly that where there is a will, there is a way. They went there not knowing what they would find and just had faith that they would be led in the right direction. If that doesn’t describe inspirational women full of spirit and strength, I’m not sure what does.

Monica Shaw is a native of Dallas, Texas where she has been a successful entrepreneur. She attended St. Thomas Aquinas, graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, and earned her Geology / Petroleum Engineering degree from UT Austin. Her debut novel, The Rainwater Secret, started off as a personal research project looking into the life of her great aunt who became a missionary teacher. Monica is married with 3 children.

When Earl’s bride Morgan vanishes in the Smoky Mountains on their honeymoon, the former Navy SEAL is certain she’s been abducted. The park rangers disagree, and after a storm washes away any potential evidence, they call off the official search. Then another man loses his daughter in the same area. Can one last lead help Earl find Morgan before he loses her forever?WATCH THE BOOK TRAILER

At a sporting event I had the opportunity to interview Jim Pepperman and Earl Helmsly from The Pepperman Mystery Series.

Bill: Jim, I believe you’re the lead character of Pepperman’s Promise and Perplexity and Earl, you have the lead in Panic Point. Tell me how your role came about, Jim.

Jim: In the spring of 1966, I was a junior in high school at Odessa Permian. We’d won our first Texas state football championship in the fall of that school year. Getting ready for my senior season was the most important thing to me. I hoped we could have back-to-back championships. Then something happened and I started my senior year in Belleville, New Jersey.

Bill: That must have been a shock to your system.

Jim: You bet it was. After my family moved to Belleville, I got a job at a diner managed by Glynna Helmsly, Earl’s mother. That’s how our families met. The connection clicked right away. It was hard being the new guy from Texas, but the Helmsly’s helped me make the adjustment.

Bill: Earl, how old were you when the two families met?

Earl: I was about three. When Jim came to our house, my twin brother Burl and I would latch onto his legs and he’d have to Frankenstein walk us up to our porch. I’m sure I was a pest.

Bill: Jim, I understand Pepperman’s Promise is not a mystery. Can you tell me a little more?

Jim: I tell my story beginning at age seventeen through my twentieth high school reunion. The main character in each mystery will be someone you meet in Pepperman’s Promise. Many of my fans told me they loved Glynna Helmsly and her family. I thought it was time to let someone else take the lead.

Bill: Okay Earl, this is your chance.

Earl: What makes this easy for me is I get to tell you about a smart, beautiful woman I met in a common situation, but an awkward circumstance.

Bill: Who is this woman?

Earl: Morgan. I’m going to tell you how a guy from New Jersey meets a Tennessee woman. She ran track in high school and college, setting an SEC record in the 200 meter. She’s an avid camper and that’s where my story begins.

Bill: I’m sorry to say our time is up. I guess everyone will have to read Panic Point to find out how your story unfolds. Thanks, guys.

Bill grew up in the oil and gas refinery town of Phillips in the Texas Panhandle. After graduating from college with a master’s degree, he spent most of his career working for a major insurance company as an agency manager and consultant.

As his retirement was on the horizon, he had an idea about a book. That story, Pepperman’s Promise, became the prequel to The Pepperman Mystery Series, and Perplexity and Panic Point, the next two books in the series, are now available.

The Union Army wants former Confederate Army general Beau Kerry for alleged war crimes, but he’s hiding out where the Yankees least expect to find him: in the United States Cavalry. Beau is fighting Apaches out West and praying nobody recognizes his famous face.But Lieutenant Kerry’s luck changes when he runs into Sergeant Ike Jefferson and says, “The last time I saw you, I had you bent over a barrel and I was whipping you.” Ike is not only Beau’s best friend (or worst enemy, depending on the day), he’s Beau’s former slave — and Ike knows there’s a $5000 price on Beau’s head.

Caroline Dietrich has vengeance on her mind. Married to Colonel Wesley Dietrich, the Union fort commander, Caroline believes the best path to getting revenge against the Yankees, her husband included, is seducing her husband’s officers. Especially Beau.

From the killing fields of the Civil War, to the savagery of the Indian wars, the characters are also battling each other and searching for what it means to be human.

5-STAR PRAISE FOR THE STAMP OF HEAVEN:

“Her characters are vivid, relatable, and endearing. She brings to life the rigors of frontier duty, the harsh beauty of west Texas, and the complexity of war and reconciliation. A must read!”

“Julia Robb creates a masterful tale of friendship, loyalty, cowardice, deceit, and redemption in this fascinating story set in the aftermath of the War Between the States…Not a simple western yarn, this novel will keep you thinking and asking the Big Questions long after you finish reading it.”

In the aftermath of the Civil War it was not all that uncommon for former adversaries to serve side-by-side on America’s frontier. With Lee’s surrender at Appomattox the Confederate Army had been disbanded. The war’s end also saw the Union Army downsized and reorganized. However, resistance from Native Americans as the country expanded westward required the organization of new units to confront the threat.

In the Trans-Pecos portion of Texas an all-black unit, the 9th Cavalry, is garrisoned at Fort Davis to stop attacks from the Apache. They are led by white officers, some of whom still view their race as inferior. Faced with the same bias and prejudice they experienced as slaves, the Buffalo Soldiers struggle to gain acceptance, respect, and equality while also facing a cruel and implacable foe.

Envy and hatred also affect their leadership. Though President Lincoln had called upon the nation to heal its wounds “with malice towards none” the animosity that led to four years of internecine conflict still existed. “Yankee bastard” and “Confederate trash” were lingering sentiments that kept military commands divided. For the North, the scourge of slavery had almost succeeded in tearing the nation apart. For the South, the invasion of their homeland had destroyed a beloved way of life. These wounds simply would not heal.

This is the setting for Julia Robb’s latest novel, The Stamp of Heaven. The fight against the Apache is a fight for survival in a harsh and unforgiving land. Yet it is only the backdrop to a far greater conflict, the fight for men’s souls.

Robb writes vivid descriptions of military life on the frontier that capture the isolation and loneliness, the drudgery of garrison duty, the difficulties of campaigns against an elusive enemy, the violence of sudden confrontations. She also reminds readers of the horrors of human bondage and the magnitude of titanic battles fought during the Civil War, particularly recalling the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, Virginia in 1864.

This is not a western or war novel in the conventional sense. It is an exploration of themes involving courage and cowardice, deceit and betrayal, love and regret, sin and redemption. It looks at personal relationships and both physical and psychological wounds, and asks deep questions about our humanity. What makes someone a good person? Is such a judgment based on an individual’s perception of themselves, or is it the perception of others that matters? Can past transgressions be overcome? What gives meaning to someone’s life? While each of us attempts to answer these questions, we don’t really know… “Maybe God does.”

Julia Robb is a former journalist who writes novels set in Texas. She’s written Saint of the Burning Heart, Scalp Mountain, Del Norte, The Captive Boy, and The Stamp of Heaven.

Julia grew up on the lower Great Plains of Texas, eventually and lived in every corner of the Lone Star State, from the Rio Grande to the East Texas swamps.

The Lone Star Book Blog Tours (LSBBT) Blogger Team has announced its 2018 Bloggers’ Choice Awards.

To be eligible for a 2018 LSBBT Bloggers’ Choice Award, a book must have been featured on an interactive book blog tour in 2018. Many authors (myself included) showcased their work on tour, providing readers over sixty titles to choose from in genres ranging from romance, mystery, paranormal, fantasy, spiritual, western, memoir, and historical fiction.

The LSBBT Blogger Team wrote nearly three hundred book reviews of the 2018 titles, and the winners in twelve different categories were determined by a combination of the reviewers’ average book ratings and team member votes.

A hook-up turned lethal. A spurned, angry cowboy. Can rebel Maggie turn the tables before a killer adds her to the list of lost causes?

Washed-up alt-country rocker-turned-junker Maggie Killian is pulled to Wyoming by an irresistible force . . . former bull rider Hank Sibley, the man who broke her heart fifteen years before. When she unexpectedly meets his Sunday school-teaching girlfriend at a saloon, Maggie seeks liquor-fueled oblivion between the sheets of a younger man’s bed. But after her beloved vintage truck breaks down and leaves her stranded in the Cowboy State, she learns her hook-up died minutes after leaving their rendezvous. Suddenly surrounded by men with questionable motives, Maggie searches for the murderer while fighting the electricity between herself and her old beau, and her new penchant for local whiskey.

When the police zero in on Maggie despite a disturbing series of break-ins at her guest cabin, she realizes she’s got no one to rely on but herself. To keep herself happily in bars instead of behind them, she must stop the killer before the cops realize the man she really suspects is a jealous, angry Hank.

Live Wire is the first standalone book in a trilogy featuring sharp-tongued protagonist Maggie Killian from the addictive What Doesn’t Kill You romantic mystery series. If you like nerve-racking suspense, electric characters and relationships, and juicy plot twists, then you’ll love USA Today best seller Pamela Fagan Hutchins’ Silver Falchion award-winning series.

What Doesn’t Kill You world features romantic mystery protagonists whose lives are interconnected in a bunch of ways. They’re smart, kickass women who solve whatever problems—including a few dead bodies—life throws at them as they navigate their unique journeys of friendships, romance, career, families, and more. My novels are mostly PG-13, and you’ll find a thread of everyday magic running through them. People say they’re funny. They’re probably full of it.

You meet all of the WDKY protagonists in Act One—which you can only get by subscribing to my newsletter. You don’t get a deep dive into their lives and characters there, but you totally do in their novels, and Saving Grace is a great example of that with Katie.

People often want to know if they have to be read in order….

No. Yes. Maybe. Do what you want J But it’s an experience enhancer. I jump around by protagonist, and I sometimes jump around in the timeline, too. Intentionally. So feel free to read freestyle. However, it does enhance the experience to read “in order.”

Buckle Bunny (Maggie Prequel Novella)

Shock Jock (Maggie Prequel Short Story)

Act One (Prequel, Ensemble Novella)

Saving Grace (Katie #1)

Leaving Annalise (Katie #2)

Finding Harmony (Katie #3)

Going for Kona (Michele #1)

Heaven to Betsy (Emily #1)

Earth to Emily (Emily #2)

Hell to Pay (Emily #3)

Fighting for Anna (Michele #2)

Bombshell (Ava #1)

Stunner (Ava #2)

Knockout (Ava #3)

Searching for Dime Box (Michele #3)

Live Wire (Maggie #1)

Sick Puppy (Maggie #2)

Dead Pile (Maggie #3)

Pamela Fagan Hutchins is a USA Today best seller. She writes award-winning romantic mysteries from deep in the heart of Nowheresville, Texas and way up in the frozen north of Snowheresville, Wyoming. She is passionate about long hikes with her hunky husband and pack of rescue dogs and riding her gigantic horses.

If you’d like Pamela to speak to your book club, women’s club, class, or writers’ group, by Skype or in person, shoot her an e-mail. She’s very likely to say yes. Connect with Pamela on the web.

2011 Winner of the Houston Writers Guild Novel Contest, Mainstream2010 Winner of the Writers League of Texas Manuscript Contest, Romance

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Fresh from solving her third mystery—and saving Dunmullach’s firstborn males from a vengeful ghost—Gethsemane Brown’s ready to relax and enjoy her summer. Her plans include nothing more dangerous than performing in the opening ceremony of the annual rose and garden show and cheering on Frankie Grennan, who’s entered his hybrid rose into the competition.

But when a mysterious stalker starts leaving Frankie floral bouquets as coded messages, Gethsemane fears a copy-cat may be planning to recreate the still-unsolved murders of the infamous Flower Shop Killer. Then Frankie’s main competitor in the rose show—and the reason his marriage failed—turns up dead in Frankie’s rose garden. Frankie takes first prize in the category “prime suspect.”

So much for a relaxing summer.

As bodies start dropping like rose petals, Gethsemane must judge the other suspects and find the real killer. Or rose bushes won’t be the only things dead-headed in Dunmullach.

Your book titles are cleverly related to your main character’s occupation. Can you tell us how you came up with your titles? Any titles that ended up on the cutting room floor?

I came up with my first title, Murder in G Major, because I wanted to let readers know it was a murder mystery and to let them know music played a role. And I wanted something alliterative since I couldn’t think of an outright pun. I thought the publisher would change it, but they didn’t.

The rest of the titles in the series had to follow the same pattern as the first. Killing in C Sharp originally had “A” before “Killing” (A Killing in C Sharp) but my publisher cut the “A.” The publisher also wanted me to put “Flat” after the “F” in Fatality in F because all of the other titles have a word after the note, i.e., major, minor, sharp. I argued that one because F-flat is the same note as E and it’s theoretical more than practical. With double sharps or double flats, it’s too complex for most musicians to play. F-flat also sounds, well, flat and I didn’t want my title to suggest a dud. I convinced my publisher to see things my way, but I did agree to have another title in the series without a word after the note, for consistency.

Do you now or have you ever considered writing under a pen-name? Why or why not?

I’ve never considered a pen name because I’ve always wanted to see my name on the cover of a book. Also, I couldn’t think of a good pseudonym.

Who would you cast to play your characters in a movie version of your book?

I want Thandie Newton to play Gethsemane and Prince Harry to play Frankie in the film version. Haven’t cast the rest of the characters yet.

What’s something interesting that most people don’t know about you?

I’ve won ribbons in State Fairs in weaving, knitting, and duct tape craft.

What is your favorite quote?

“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” –Toni Morrison

A writer since childhood, Alexia Gordon won her first writing prize in the 6th grade. She continued writing through college but put literary endeavors on hold to finish medical school and Family Medicine residency training. She established her medical career then returned to writing fiction. Raised in the southeast, schooled in the northeast, she relocated to the west where she completed Southern Methodist University’s Writer’s Path program. She admits Texas brisket is as good as Carolina pulled pork. She practices medicine in North Chicago, IL. She enjoys the symphony, art collecting, embroidery, and ghost stories.